Bilstein 5160 leak

Any of you AEV guys had an issue with the bottom cap of the 5160 poping off and leaking oil? Like the pictures below. Wouldn't say it's a ton of oil but enough to make me wonder.
And of course AEV tuned 5160s are so damn expensive yet I hesitate to buy it 1 new one when the rest have 35k+ miles on them.

Still don't have my tools out of storage yet to test the rebound on it but wanted to see if it's happened to anyone on here as well?

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That’s a bummer. I have almost 56,000 miles on my 5160s without an issue. Certainly wouldn’t recommend replacing just one but you might get by with two.


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desertrunner said:

Any of you AEV guys had an issue with the bottom cap of the 5160 poping off and leaking oil? Like the pictures below. Wouldn't say it's a ton of oil but enough to make me wonder.
And of course AEV tuned 5160s are so damn expensive yet I hesitate to buy it 1 new one when the rest have 35k+ miles on them.

Still don't have my tools out of storage yet to test the rebound on it but wanted to see if it's happened to anyone on here as well? View attachment 355990 View attachment 355991

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Click to expand...

Dang that’s a bummer. Are they rebuildable?


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I burned through two like that around 35k, that’s when I had upgraded to the kings. I don’t believe they are rebuildable.


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler

wjtstudios said:

I burned through two like that around 35k, that’s when I had upgraded to the kings. I don’t believe they are rebuildable.


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler

Click to expand...

I feel like now would be the time to make a change at 35k instead of just doing rears or trying to rebuild 1. Did you notice a difference with the king's?

I'm not necessarily a fan of the AEV coils either but time and money doesn't lend itself to fully change the set up just yet.

My other thought was just to throw some rancho 9000s on there since I really don't think I need reservoir shocks.

From what I have read on the AEV forum you can get them rebuilt but you have to send them back to Bilstein

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JJ151 said:

That’s a bummer. I have almost 56,000 miles on my 5160s without an issue. Certainly wouldn’t recommend replacing just one but you might get by with two.


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Click to expand...

Well take a jeep that has lived it's entire life in Hawaii and move it to North Dakota... Bound to have a few things that don't like the cold. It happened on one of the first really cold days out here I can't help but think that had something to do with it. As well as the coolant leak haha

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desertrunner said:

I feel like now would be the time to make a change at 35k instead of just doing rears or trying to rebuild 1. Did you notice a difference with the king's?

I'm not necessarily a fan of the AEV coils either but time and money doesn't lend itself to fully change the set up just yet.

My other thought was just to throw some rancho 9000s on there since I really don't think I need reservoir shocks.

From what I have read on the AEV forum you can get them rebuilt but you have to send them back to Bilstein

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Click to expand...

A massive difference with the kings. Well worth the investment, but in hindsight I wish I would have just jumped to the COs. I was happy with the 4.5” AEVs, but Bison is heavy and my 4” plush rides really squashed under the load so I had put the AEVs back in. But it really was a great setup with the AEVs and Kings.


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler

wjtstudios said:

A massive difference with the kings. Well worth the investment, but in hindsight I wish I would have just jumped to the COs. I was happy with the 4.5” AEVs, but Bison is heavy and my 4” plush rides really squashed under the load so I had put the AEVs back in. But it really was a great setup with the AEVs and Kings.


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler

Click to expand...

Forking out money for the King's hurts.
On paper I understand the whole dual rate coil stuff but I feel like this jeep sits right on that weird transition zone so its a hard compression and a weird springy unload (pun intended) I would love to just ditch the AEV lift all together other than it's a heavy bitch and it does function the way it sits. Kinda why I bought a built one this round instead of a scratch build again.
Coilovers for this jeep aren't in the cards so the coils will just have stay. I have the old 35s up for sale and maybe that will offset the cost and just get a full new round of 5160s on all corners and call it a day.

At least from the sounds of it, having one of these shocks go at 35k is not uncommon and maybe it's just that time to get new.

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